Betting on Mum’s recipe

Onn is happy to share her familys recipes with her customers and fans.

Having grown up with her parents’ food business, DJ and actress Linda Onn tells ZIEMAN she was drawn to start her own F&B business using her mum’s erstwhile recipes. Today, she runs two My Mom’s Chicken Rice outlets and one My Asam Pedas Shop restaurant.

THERE is no magic formula for success in the food business. Celebrity DJ, TV host and actress Linda Onn learned this early in life from watching her parents operate a canteen, a food stall and later a restaurant in Singapore and Johor Baru.

“It’s the hard work, determination and long hours that sustained them in the business,” she says.

“I was still in primary school when I saw how my parents laboured at the stalls,” recalls Linda, who used to follow her mother every day to the canteen before school started.

By the time she was 10, she was helping her parents serve customers and helped in the preparations as well. These childhood memories left a lasting impression on Linda and made her want to emulate her parents. Ultimately, it was what inspired her to start My Mom’s Chicken Rice restaurants.

Linda hopes to open more My Mom’s Chicken Rice shops by 2016.

The idea for her own chicken rice shop came in 1998 when Linda was living alone in KL and missing “my mom’s chicken rice so much.” Every time she craved for chicken rice, she would walk into a restaurant and order a plate. But she would invariably leave unsatisfied because nobody made chicken rice like her mum.

When her entertainment career flourished and she had some money and an urge to make that money grow, Linda couldn’t think of a better business than food.

“I told myself if I wanted to have a comfortable life, then I had to work hard. And the only way to get good returns was through business. So I started doing research. At first I wanted to open an American pool club because I love playing pool. But because most clubs offer alcohols, I was afraid a pool club without alcohol would not succeed,” she remembers.

There were other options like opening a salon or a production house, but Linda wasn’t too keen. She decided it would have to be a chicken rice shop. And so she called her mother and sister, who agreed to help her open the first My Mom’s Chicken Rice outlet at Ampang Point. She came up with a working capital of RM150,000. By the time her restaurant was launched, she was left with just RM15,000 in the bank.

This was in 2011.

“I knew I was in a do-or-die situation because my money was drying up. Thank God, the business took off, and I had a bit of profit,” says Linda.

Linda’s My Asam Pedas Shop at Dataran Pandan Prima.

Not everybody was a believer. She was, after all, another celebrity dipping her foot into the business pool.

A customer even openly predicted that her business would only last six months. Linda took this as a challenge.

“It is all about the right business model and striking the right balance between pricing and demand. We were selling between 200 to 300 plates of chicken rice a day. I knew I got the formula right as more customers thronged my shop,” says Linda.

Her celebrity status and media friends helped spread the word about her restaurant. More and more people came to check out her chicken rice shop. Linda managed to recoup her investment within a few months.

Today, she operates two My Mom’s Chicken Rice outlets (the second at Tesco Ampang), plus another restaurant offering Malay cuisine called My Asam Pedas Shop at Dataran Pandan Prima.

According to Linda, her biggest problem is staffing.

If you like sambal and you like squids, then the sambal sotong at My Asam Pedas Shop is just the thing for you.

“If you ask any restaurateur, the answer would be staffing problems. It’s easy to manage the food, the administration, the whole restaurant but it’s not easy to handle the staff. My worst nightmare is getting loyal and reliable staff. But I’m beginning to cope, even though I’m understaff these days. I have a manager and operations manager to handle the daily operations,” she points out.

With her chicken shop a hit, Linda began to think of diversifying. In 2013, she opened My Asam Pedas Shop.

“I love both the chicken rice and asam pedas by my family. I wanted to share them with my fans and customers, so I decided to open My Asam Pedas shop. The response was good, especially from my loyal customers. Besides asam pedas, we also have nasi ayam penyet, mee bandung, ikan bakar, botok-botok, lemak cili padi and more in the menu. Our target group is asam pedas lovers and tourists who want to taste Malaysian food,” says Linda.

With more shops to oversee, Linda has to juggle her time between her DJ job and her business.

“I am able to do both because of the support of my loyal staff who have been with me since I started my first restaurant. Whenever I have to go for my radio, TV show or private functions for emcee jobs, they will help me to look after my restaurants. When I go on air, I try to be the best DJ on radio, and when I’m off the air, I focus on my business,” she says.

Linda views her competitors as a challenge that pushes her to perform better.

Yummy... her mum’s chicken rice.

“I see other restaurants or chicken rice restaurants as a healthy competition. Popular chain restaurants make me want to work harder to expand my restaurants. So far, I only have three restaurants. Each has around 10 to 15 workers and one outlet manager. I assist the outlet managers to do the schedule, stock keeping, profit and loss report, food cost, labour cost, etc.

“They will report to me from time to time, and we have our weekly meeting to discuss the whole operations from food to service, cleanliness, and handling customer complains, costing etc. I also have an administration department, operations, central kitchen unit and soon marketing department,” she says.

For Linda, the secret to her success is patience.

“I know some people who are impatient and expect to see results within a short time.

“They get a small profit, and they start complaining. Once, I went through a period when my business wasn’t doing well and my income was very low. But I couldn’t just quit. I know that business won’t give me a fixed amount of money at the end of every month. If I want that, I might as well just be a worker, and not a businesswoman,” she states.

Business is about taking risks, and there are ups and downs, says Linda.

The mouth-watering asam pedas is her family’s secret recipe.

“When we are up, we must maintain and try to improve. And when we are down, we shouldn’t give up. We should try again. Try to avoid mistakes, discuss and do more research. Ask why, what and how, and then start taking action plans. In this line, if I’m not making a big profit, I’d work on the menus, on improving the service or look into the marketing side.

“It’s important if you are not doing well that you do ‘repair work’, instead of shrugging the problems away,” she stresses.

Linda plans to open another branch of My Mom’s Chicken Rice in Bangsar soon. By 2016, there should be three more branches in Gombak, Bangi and Selayang.

“I have prepared a business plan for the next three years. In 2017, I plan to open four more branches. Our current central kitchen will do all the cooking for all the branches and makes all the paste. So if I have 10 branches, all 10 would have the same taste,” she says.

For Linda, the most important trait for food operators is honesty.

“It’s sad that most are after the profit instead of serving delicious food. That’s why I’m very particular about the quality and taste of the food we serve. If it’s not up to mark, I would be the first one to complain to my staff. I always believe we should be consistent,” Linda asserts.